Found+READ: Comments by Xavier Casanova

Xavier Casanova — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 22:31:15 GMT

Om,

This is something everyone wanted but only you could make happen. Now it’s up to us entrepreneurs to grow the gift you gave all of us. Thank you!

(Awesome launch party BTW ;) )

Xavier Casanova — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:20:23 GMT

Great article. There is always that difficult balance to find between persistence and nimbleness, but in reality, most startups I know went on a plan B fairly early on – then persisted.

Xavier Casanova — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:13:33 GMT

I think there is a big difference between whacking off a feature of a product (like GigaGamez as part of the GigaOM network—or the Sopranos as one of the HBO original series) and shutting down a company. Adapting, tweaking or even repositioning a company is what entrepreneurs do all the time (great example: Loomia story http://www.foundread.com/view/good-migration).

Shutting down (I think) is the very end of all – when all hope is lost.

Xavier Casanova — Thu, 03 May 2007 06:07:53 GMT

Matt – interesting you say that, “deep philosophical explanation for it”, since I have noticed a few people do talk about where their company name is coming from when you first meet them. Sometimes that can be a good ice-breaker, or a “story”, but I don’t think it works if you are selling to the consumer. The other problem that I see, and that’s particularly true for startups, is ending up with name that doesn’t reflect what the company does anymore. That’s why my hunch is to go for punchy and short rather than smart (and long).

Xavier Casanova — Wed, 02 May 2007 22:28:07 GMT

Other than being your last name (something I don’t I could do ;) Trossen Robotics is also pretty good because I’m guessing your clients (in the robotics industry) call you “Trossen” (not Trossen Robotics), right? (which does back to short, etc).

Another concern we had when naming Wambo was bad connotation. Prior to deciding on polling people, we would run a few names and run a search on the Urban Dictionary to check that. There are LOTS of slang words and I highly recommend checking these out…

Example: we liked “hify”. Sounds a lot like “Hyphy” – the rap word…